Another Hungarian favorite with a family recipe from Mom. Chicken paprikash. Promise, there isn’t too much pepper in it.
I hope those of you that are of the United Statesean persuasion are enjoying the long holiday weekend. I’m home in The Mitten for Thanksgiving and it’s been a sweatpants and sloth kind of party over here. Important things have been accomplished such as eating, writing Christmas cards, eating and finally getting around to watching Frozen.* Way to be timely on catching up with pop culture.
*In my defense, mom and I tried to watch Frozen multiple times in the past few years. Once, we were AT DISNEY, and we could not, for the life of us, find it after searching multiple pay-per-view options. Anyway, we watched, we loved, and then we sang Let it Go to ourselves for days after.
I do love coming home so much because I really have no important life adult things to do: no work, no laundry, no chores and no feeding myself. This works out well for two reasons: 1) I don’t personally have to cook because mom is more than happy to do that for me and 2) you get to eat all the wonderful mom foods that I can’t do justice on my own.
Because mom food is just so in a league of its own.
Today’s mom food is chicken paprikash, a variation on my other mom favorite veal paprikash. This is awesome and special in its own way because rather than being served with that wonderful parsley orzo, this is accompanied by nokedli, which is essentially Hungarian spaetzle.
Let’s talk about this for a second. The authentic way to make these dumplings is using a nokedli szagato (suh-ga-toe), which is kind of like a spaetzle maker. Mom’s version of this looks like an 8” round cake pan with holes punched in the bottom. If you lack a holey cake pan, or a spaetzle maker, you can use a regular box grater or simply pinch off bits of dough using the tools that God gave you. Your nokedli will be tasty nonetheless.
I hope you give this a try! If you do, I’m confident that this mom favorite of mine will become one of yours.
Written while watching Frozen. Again.
Chicken Paprikash
Ingredients
- For the veal:
- 1 chicken, combination of legs and thighs, bone-in
- 1 large yellow onion, chopped
- 1 medium carrot, chopped the same size as the onion
- 1 tsp, heaping of Sweet Hungarian Paprika
- 1 TB parsley, chopped
- 1 tsp flour
- Salt and pepper
- ¼ cup sour cream
- For the knokedli:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ cup to 2/3 cup water
Directions
- Step 1 Make the chicken: Place the chicken in a bowl, and coat the chicken parts lightly with the paprika. Set aside.
- Step 2 In a medium sauté pan, sauté the onions in 1 tsp oil and cook until golden. Add the carrot and cook until tender.
- Step 3 To the pan, add the chicken parts in a single layer and cook for 3 minutes. Flip and cook on the second side for another 30 minutes.
- Step 4 Add just enough liquid to cover what is in the pan (not too much…). Add the salt and pepper and simmer until the meat is tender, about 45 minutes. When the chicken has about 10 minutes left to cook, mix together the flour and sour cream and incorporate thoroughly into the chicken. Serve with knokedli.
- Step 5 Make the dumplings: Place a large pot of water on the stove to boil.
- Step 6 In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Stir in the eggs and just enough water (anywhere from 1/2 to 2/3 cup) to make a wet dough that is not too runny and not too thick. It should look like a thick pancake batter with a few lumps.
- Step 7 Lay a noodle grater over the pot of boiling water and place a portion of the batter/dough in the square section of the grater and move it back and forth over the grater. Repeat until you have used a third of the dough. Stir the knokedli so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Step 8 Once the dumplings rise to the surface of the pot, cook an additional minute. Using a sieve, transfer the cooked dumplings to a bowl. Add the parsley and butter, and stir until the butter has melted and is thoroughly coated.
MMMMMM, these dumplings are so spaetzle-esque, must try! – Kat
Mom food is just so the best!!!
Our family’s Polish dumplings are the same recipe but we don’t push through a ricer. We call them Ugly Dumplings and they’re so good in homemade chicken soup. I am definitely going to try this Chicken Paprikash with the dumplings, my husband loves paprika! (weird but true)
Ugly they are! I hope you love them.